The United States were heavily favoured in this event. After the 400 metres final, the IOC banned gold and silver medalists Vince Matthews and Wayne Collett from the remainder of the Olympics after they staged a protest on the podium, talking to each other and failing to stand at attention during the medal ceremony, while John Smith had pulled a hamstring as he was leading 80 metres into the final and had been ruled unfit to run. This left the Americans unable to field a team, so they were forced to scratch, leaving no clear favourite.[2]